The invention disclosed herein pertains to a machine for cleaning receptacles such as plastic and glass bottles. For convenience, the term "bottles" will be used herein as the generic designation for all glass and plastic receptacles that the machine is capable of cleaning.
In a bottle filling plant, machines which are called rinsers, are utilized to inject various fluids, including water, air and vapor into bottles to sterilize them. Good cleaning of the machine itself is required in order to avoid contamination of the treated bottles in the environment of the machine.
In a known cleaning machine of the above described type, each bottle gripping plier comprises two articulated clamping levers biased by a spring in the direction of closure, with the one clamping lever being rotatably supported directly on a swivelling axis. This clamping lever is provided with two rotatable cam rollers which follow over a spatially curved, stationary radial cam to control the swivel motion of each gripping plier. The other clamping lever also carries a rotatable cam roller which scans a stationary cam for the bottles disposed in the region of the feed and removal device and in this way controls the opening and closing movement of the gripping pliers. (FR-OS 2 489 802). After closure of the gripping pliers, the bottles are clasped at the neck below the thickened head and are held exclusively by the tension force of the springs. The gripping pliers of these known cleaning machines are very expensive to manufacture mostly due to the large number of joints, cam rollers and radial cams. These complex contrivances are, moreover, difficult to clean and difficult to keep in sterile condition.
In another known bottle cleaning machine, two clamping levers of each gripping plier are connected by articulated levers which are prestressed by a spring in the direction of closure (DE-PS 40 22 486). Through a single stationary radial cam and special intermediate transmission the swivel motion of the gripping pliers as well as also the opening and closing motion of the clamping levers are controlled. Still the cost of manufacturing the gripping pliers is relatively high and cleaning the gripping pliers is very cumbersome.